For Barnes, signing Turner raises expectations

AUSTIN — Thirty-six years after an unlikely friendship began between a streetwise teenager from Pennsylvania and a bumpkin assistant coach from rural North Carolina, John Calipari and Rick Barnes still share a connection. At lunch on Thursday, just as Texas’ compliance office was verifying the paperwork for star recruit Myles Turner, the two coaches spoke by telephone for half an hour.

Later that afternoon, as Barnes was leaving a press conference in which he raved about how Turner will help the Longhorns, he pulled out his cell phone to see what he’d missed while he was at the podium. The first missed call and message was from Calipari.

They’ve always had plenty to talk about. Fairly or not, both historically have been known more for their recruiting prowess than for their X-and-O acumen, and both have taken their share of potshots when their talented rosters have underachieved. But over the past few years, the dynamic changed. Just as Calipari was enjoying the vindication that came from winning a national championship, Barnes’ program was falling apart.

By last October, the two old friends’ worlds couldn’t have been farther apart. At Kentucky, rational people were pondering the possibility that Calipari’s team might go 40-0. At UT, the Longhorns were picked eighth in the Big 12, and Barnes was in danger of losing his job.

Both predictions turned out to be wildly inaccurate. While the Wildcats floundered through much of their season, Barnes’ team finished third in the country’s best regular-season conference. And weirdly enough, by the time the NCAA tournament arrived, Calipari and Barnes could identify with each other again. This time, though, it was as coaches of gritty, overlooked, determined underdogs. It was as if the college basketball world had been turned on its ear.

Both men said they enjoyed playing that role, and Calipari came within a few minutes of winning a national championship with it. But both men also know the truth — Kentucky and Texas should not be sneaking up on people. Kentucky and Texas should not be pulling upsets. Kentucky and Texas should not be getting credit for being better than people thought.

And so this week, after Calipari found out he was bringing back the bulk of his ridiculously talented team and Barnes found out he was adding the nation’s consensus No. 2 prospect to his, maybe that’s what the two old friends talked about.

For the Longhorns, adding Turner means everyone will expect UT to win again. Asked if that sounded better than having to prove everyone wrong, like the Longhorns did last year, Barnes nodded his head.

“You want people to know you’re good,” Barnes said. “You want people to get excited. You want people to say, ‘I want to pay to see this team.’”

This, of course, won’t be the first time Barnes will have experienced that phenomenon. Everyone knew the Longhorns were good from 2002-’08, when they made a Final Four and a national-best five Sweet 16 appearances. Everyone thought they’d be good over the next five seasons, when they signed five McDonald’s All-Americans and wound up with a grand total of two NCAA tournament victories to show for it.

Now, with every player returning and Turner in the mix, the pressure to get back, at minimum, to the Sweet 16 for the first time in seven years will be immense. Barnes said he’s OK with that.

“We’ve never shied away from expectations,” Barnes said. “Ours will be higher than everyone else’s.”

Because it had been a while since Barnes signed a player of Turner’s stature, someone wondered if Barnes was worried about experiencing the one-and-done NBA draft phenomenon again. He shrugged.

“If we have the kind of year I’d like to have,” Barnes said, “everybody will be talking about everybody leaving.”

It was the kind of answer that would have made his longtime friend proud. And if Barnes is sounding like Calipari again?